What BJP must do to counter jihadi threat in Assam

An electoral narrative that had been dominating Assam’s firmament ever since the closing days of 2015 has finally ended with BJP decisively racing past the finishing line. Although the arithmetic of the accomplishment surprised poll punditry, the victory itself has not.

The crave for change has been palpable for quite some time, and the manner in which the saffron party’s managers were able to transform the yearning into ballot actualisation ensured that no stone was left unturned to transform the foreseeable into reality.

New Delhi — by all indications — seems to be seized of the imperative of time and the opportunity that BJP’s victory has provided it in the Northeast. The author has acquired sufficient hints about its seriousness. But recapitulation of some of the salience (by way of an examination of the three most important aspects) is in order and an enumerative appraisal is put forward.

With the demise of ethnic insurgency in Assam, the time is both ripe and favourable for radical Islamism — which all along has been waiting in the wings — to resolutely enter the lower reaches of Assam and take up the trenches that ethnic insurgencies have left behind.

This aspect is particularly important as there are clear signs of an alien easterly blowing from the Middle East, which — in concert with the developments in Bangladesh — has the ability to compromise the security situation in Assam. The radicalisation efforts of Daesh and its affiliate Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh cannot be discounted any longer. However, a racial profiling agenda would be detrimental.

Indeed, the effort must be to aggressively chart the path for "fast-laning" the foreigners tribunals and deport the illegal migrants. The new government has to comprehend that it is now no longer just a political party. With the chapter of rhetoric having closed, BJP is now squarely the dispensation of all Asom Basi.

Indeed, BJP has to not only guarantee security to the Muslims, but incorporate it in its fight against Daesh. There must be no ambiguity about such matters.

Assam’s geography is so chequered that it criss-crosses and overlaps across communities. Grant of a special provision to a community, therefore, militates with that of another. There has to be a way to circuit this aspect. For instance, the Amri Karbis have asked for a halt to the developmental works in Dimoria, a hamlet near Guwahati which is populated by both Amri Karbis and Tiwas, but falls under the Tiwa Autonomous Council.

Such dissonances are going to increase and although the “rationale” behind the creation of such councils was to ensure that indigenous communities get a rightful place under the sun, the fact of the matter is such grants would only further the faultlines of conflict.

The reality that characterises Assam, and indeed the entire Northeast (in the words of the legendary Nirmal Nibedon) is that of an "ethnic explosion", with "all (ethnic groups) zealously guarding their ethnic identity".

A calibrated policy that has long eluded both the governed and the governments has to be arrived at, one which informs "every flower" of the region that she is as vital as the other, and more importantly that they belong to an enviable expanse that makes up the flower garden that is the Northeast.

The accent must, therefore, be on careful perception management: to remind the people of the enchanted frontiers that they are spawn of the same history and must not only accept that reality, but embrace it with a sense of pride.

The dialogue processes with ULFA (Pro-Talk), NDFB (Progressive) and such other factions should be completed immediately. However, a word of caution needs to be sounded when it comes to what the author terms as continual construction of "back-to-back designated camps". 

Sound policy must prohibit quarter to wayward groups, insurgent outfits that find exit after the commission of crime. Such insouciance has only led onlooking groups to adopt copy-cat modes. The lack of a clear strategy to deal with such groups has been a bane and the accent of the present must be to deal with insurgents as firmly as possible.

But, with groups that are already in talk-mode, the approach must be "no delay", and dialogue only on the Indian state’s terms.

A mandate such as the one that BJP has been able to muster is comparable to great power. And, "with great power comes great responsibility".

Indeed, the scenario could not have been more conducive for such a course correction, especially as there is an enabling partner in New Delhi. The construction of a doorway into the Northeast via Assam will aid Delhi’s vision for reaching out to dynamic South East Asia.

Therefore, even as memories of Delhi and Bihar drown in the ecstasy of Assam, BJP must ascertain that it gets down to business immediately.

Euphoria, after all, is a transitory animal, and BJP would do well to capitalise on the "merits of the moment", to design and implement the undertakings that it had set for itself, and well before the new-found vigour dissipates or changes contours for the preparation of yet another election.

After all only two years separate the present from the country wide mandate that will be upon it in 2019.